A Bankruptcy Litigation Framework for Series LLC Eligibility, Property of the Estate and Substantive Consolidation

The Series LLC is a new and idiosyncratic business entity that presents unique questions of law in the bankruptcy context. The Series LLC shields its members from liability and limits liability between various business endeavors. However, this multi-faceted liability protection creates several questions. These include: whether the Series LLC is eligible for bankruptcy, how to deal with the yet untested limited liability protection of different business endeavors, and whether the Series LLC\u27s multi-directional liability protections run contrary to federal bankruptcy policy. After responding to these concerns, the author proposes a bankruptcy litigation framework to address uncertainty surrounding Series LLC bankruptcy eligibility and create a level playing field

The Organic Material Culture of Western Ulster: An Ethno-historical and Heritage Science Approach

This research attempts to describe the material culture of the Gaelic labouring classes living in western Ulster in the Late Medieval period. The research combines ethnohistorical contextual and technical scientific analysis of ‘chance’ finds discovered in the region’s bogs. Technical analysis dates fifteen museum objects, characterises the materials from which they were made, and explores their cultural significance. Absolute dating indicates that one third of the 15 objects analysed relate to the Gaelic lordships of late medieval western Ulster, with the remainder reflecting aspects of Iron Age and Post-Medieval material culture and related cultural pracrices. Contextual analysis of the later medieval objects and their find locations provides new insights into Gaelic Irish culture and landscape interactions in this period and place. In addition, the research explores the trajectory of indigenous materiality in western Ulster beyond the Late Medieval period. To this end, the thesis examines the relationship between Late Medieval indigenous materiality, and the folk material culture that emerges in western Ulster in the Modern period.Heritage Consortium, Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK

Removing the twin image in digital holography by segmented filtering of in-focus twin image

We propose and investigate a new digital method for the reduction of twin-image noise from digital Fresnel holograms. For the case of in-line Fresnel holography the unwanted twin is present as a highly corruptive noise when the object image is numerically reconstructed. We propose to firstly reconstruct the unwanted twin-image when it is in-focus and in this plane we calculate a segmentation mask that borders this in focus image. The twin-image is then segmented and removed by simple spatial filtering. The resulting digital wavefield is the inverse propagated to the desired object image plane. The image is free of the twin-image resulting in improved quality reconstructions. We demonstrate the segmentation and removal of the unwanted twin-image from in-line digital holograms containing real-world macroscopic objects. We offer suggestions for its rapid computational implementation

A Practical Guide to Digital Holography and Generalized Sampling

The theorems of Nyquist, Shannon and Whittaker have long held true for sampling optical signals. They showed that a signal (with finite bandwidth) should be sampled at a rate at least as fast as twice the maximum spatial frequency of the signal. They proceeded to show how the continuous signal could be reconstructed perfectly from its well sampled counterpart by convolving a Sinc function with the sampled signal. Recent years have seen the emergence of a new generalized sampling theorem of which Nyquist Shannon is a special case. This new theorem suggests that it is possible to sample and reconstruct certain signals at rates much slower than those predicted by Nyquist-Shannon. One application in which this new theorem is of considerable interest is Fresnel Holography. A number of papers have recently suggested that the sampling rate for the digital recording of Fresnel holograms can be relaxed considerably. This may allow the positioning of the object closer to the camera allowing for a greater numerical aperture and thus an improved range of 3D perspective. In this paper we: (i) Review generalized sampling for Fresnel propagated signals, (ii) Investigate the effect of the twin image, always present in recording, on the generalized sampling theorem and (iii) Discuss the effect of finite pixel size for the first time

Analysis of the US Food and Drug Administration Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database for adverse events involving Amplatzer septal occluder devices and comparison with the Society of Thoracic Surgery congenital cardiac surgery database

ObjectiveAmplatzer (AGA Medical Corporation, Plymouth, Minn) septal and vascular occluder devices have significantly altered the care of patients with congenital heart disease. The relative frequency and consequence of complications resulting from the attempted placement of such devices, however, have not been well assessed. The purpose of this study is to use large databases to assess the frequency and severity of such complications and compare them with those of surgical atrial septal defect closure.MethodsThe US Food and Drug Administration Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database was quarried for all adverse events for Amplatzer septal occluder devices, which were categorized and analyzed with particular emphasis on management and outcome. The Society of Thoracic Surgery database was likewise quarried for the same data regarding atrial septal defect closures over a contemporaneous time period. By using a literature-derived denominator for total Amplatzer implant numbers, the results of the 2 therapies were compared.ResultsSince July 1, 2002, 223 adverse events in patients undergoing Amplatzer atrial septal defect closure were submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, resulting in 17 deaths (7.6%) and 152 surgical rescue operations (68.2%). Society of Thoracic Surgery data demonstrated 1537 primary operations with 2 deaths (0.13%) and 6 reoperations (0.39%). By extrapolating on published estimates of Amplatzer implantation to provide an implant denominator (n = 18,333), there was no difference between overall mortality for surgical (0.13%) and device closure (0.093%, P = .649). Rescue operation for device adverse events (0.83%) was 2.1 times more likely than reoperation for surgical closure (0.39%, P = .063). Mortality per adverse event was higher for device closure (7.6%) than for surgical closure (1.2%, P = .004), and the need for surgery per adverse event was higher for device closure (68.2%) than for surgical closure (3.6%, P < .001). The mortality for surgical management of a device adverse event (2.6%) was 20-fold higher than for primary elective atrial septal defect closure (0.13%, P < .0001).ConclusionOverall crude mortality for device and surgical closure atrial septal defect closure is equivalent, and the need for subsequent operation (surgical rescue) is more common in patients undergoing device closure than reoperation is in patients undergoing surgical closure. Complications from device closure tend to be serious and most often require urgent or emergency operative management, whereas the mortality for surgical management of a device complication appears higher than that of elective atrial septal defect closure. Further information is required in the form of postmarketing surveillance, such as a mandatory user registry with periodic end-user notification

Classification using distance nearest neighbours

This paper proposes a new probabilistic classification algorithm using a Markov random field approach. The joint distribution of class labels is explicitly modelled using the distances between feature vectors. Intuitively, a class label should depend more on class labels which are closer in the feature space, than those which are further away. Our approach builds on previous work by Holmes and Adams (2002, 2003) and Cucala et al. (2008). Our work shares many of the advantages of these approaches in providing a probabilistic basis for the statistical inference. In comparison to previous work, we present a more efficient computational algorithm to overcome the intractability of the Markov random field model. The results of our algorithm are encouraging in comparison to the k-nearest neighbour algorithm.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Statistics and Computin

Results of 102 cases of complete repair of congenital heart defects in patients weighing 700 to 2500 grams

AbstractBackground: Published data suggest that low birth weight is a risk factor for poor outcome in corrective surgery for many cardiac defects. Congenital heart defects in low birth weight infants are typically managed with supportive therapy or palliative operations, with definitive repair delayed. The morbidity associated with such approaches is high. Methods: Since 1990 complete repair of congenital heart defects (other than patent ductus arteriosus) has been performed in 102 infants no larger than 2500 g (median 2100 g, range 700-2500 g), including 16 no larger than 1500 g. Defects included ventricular septal defect (n = 22), tetralogy of Fallot complexes (n = 20), transposition complexes (n = 13), aortic coarctation (n = 12), interrupted arch (n = 10), truncus arteriosus (n = 8), atrioventricular septal defect (n = 6), total anomalous pulmonary venous return (n = 5), and other (n = 6). Results: Preoperative morbidity was more common among patients referred late for surgical correction. There were 10 early deaths (10%) attributable to cardiac failure (n = 4), arrhythmia (n = 1), multiorgan failure (n = 1), sepsis (n = 1), idiopathic coronary artery intimal necrosis (n = 1), foot gangrene (n = 1), and pulmonary hemorrhage (n = 1). No patient had postbypass intracerebral hemorrhage. At follow-up (median 36 months) there were 8 late deaths, and 8 patients underwent 10 reinterventions. There was no evidence of neurologic sequelae attributable to the operation. Conclusions: In general, delaying repair of congenital heart defects in low birth weight infants does not confer a benefit and is associated with higher preoperative morbidity. Complete repair of both simple and complex lesions can be achieved in such cases with good results. Growth after repair approximates the normal curve for low birth weight infants without heart disease. It is recommended that such infants, especially when they have symptoms, undergo early surgical repair rather than prolonged medical management or other forms of palliation. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1999;117:324-31

Validation of Immersed Boundary Simulations of Heart Valve Hemodynamics against In Vitro 4D Flow MRI Data

The immersed boundary (IB) method is a mathematical framework for fluid-structure interaction problems (FSI) that was originally developed to simulate flows around heart valves. Validation of FSI simulations around heart valves against experimental data is challenging, however, due to the difficulty of performing robust and effective simulations, the complications of modeling a specific physical experiment, and the need to acquire experimental data that is directly comparable to simulation data. In this work, we performed physical experiments of flow through a pulmonary valve in an in vitro pulse duplicator, and measured the corresponding velocity field using 4D flow MRI (4-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging). We constructed a computer model of this pulmonary artery setup, including modeling valve geometry and material properties via a technique called design-based elasticity, and simulated flow through it with the IB method. The simulated flow fields showed excellent qualitative agreement with experiments, excellent agreement on integral metrics, and reasonable relative error in the entire flow domain and on slices of interest. These results validate our design-based valve model construction, the IB solvers used and the immersed boundary method for flows around heart valves

Measurement of a W-band gyro-TWA experiment based on a helically corrugated interaction region

Measurements of an upgraded W-band gyro-TWA with a helically corrugated waveguide and a cusp electron gun are presented. With upgraded input coupler and output systems a gain of ~37 dB was measured from the experiment with a maximum output power of over 2 kW. The amplification from the gyro-TWA was measured in the frequency range of 90 GHz to 96 GHz